Is it safe to remove an infected cardiac implantable electronic device at the time of heart transplantation? Report of two cases.

Cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) infections are treated with antibiotics and device explantation. Lack of CIED removal is associated with infection recurrence. However, CIED removal can be associated with major complications including death.

Depression and anxiety predict decline in physical health functioning in patients with heart failure.

Background: Few studies have examined the prospective influences of depression and anxiety on physical health functioning in heart failure (HF) patients. Prior studies were also limited by employing psychological measures containing somatic items confounded with HF symptoms.

Purpose: This study examined whether depression, anxiety, social support, and their changes predicted the decline of physical functioning in HF patients over 6 months.

Digitized electrocardiograms recorded with bipolar right-infraclavicular leads compared to electrocardiograms recorded with unipolar chest V leads and bipolar lead II.

This article presents a method for the evaluation of cardiac depolarizations in a relatively short time with a minimum number of electrodes. With the negative electrode attached to the right infraclavicular region, voltage variations on the chest surface exhibit larger excursions than do the usual unipolar leads. Peak voltages of the PQRST waveforms measured on 12 normal patients by both methods were similar in polarity but were statistically significantly higher in the right infraclavicular leads.